The Mevo Start 3-piece package with the Mevo Multicam App three-camera kit is priced at $999. Add some nice lights and a nice microphone, and you can get a complete multi-camera streaming setup for less than $2,000. This was completely unthinkable a few years ago, let us take a moment to consider how amazing how far we have come. Add a rock-solid Internet connection, and you basically replicate the core functionality of the satellite truck, which is filled with equipment that is two orders of magnitude more expensive than the kit.
Can professional broadcast news workers use the Mevo Start kit? No-you need higher reliability, better redundancy, and equipment to meet the needs of on-site journalists. But if you solve the same problem from another angle, things will become more meaningful.
What if you are a YouTube anchor and want to improve your game level? Maybe you have been using a series of network cameras and OBS to run your live broadcast, and you just want a setup that is easier to disassemble and reassemble. Maybe you are a music anchor on Twitch. You have conducted several live broadcasts with your band and are keen to improve your game through multi-camera live broadcasts. Or, you might want to start live streaming events that take place in different venues. In this case, the Mevo Start 3-pack suddenly looked like an absolute bargain. Most importantly, once you set it up for the first time, you can set it up and reassemble it very quickly.
At least, this is theory. Taking a step back, the question becomes whether it is so effective in practice.
Technical commentators face an impossible task from time to time: how do you comment on a product that was not designed for you, and how do you provide meaningful opinions on whether the product is suitable for the audience for which it was designed? Mevo Start 3-pack and the Mevo Multicam app from Logitech for Creators are just one of these products. I am not a Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook anchor-but on the other hand, I do have a degree in journalism and focus on broadcast news. I fondly remember being trained as a news anchor and a live TV reporter. I stayed in the live link unit of BBC News (the satellite van) for a minute. I used to be a TV producer.
The problem is that when you have a wealth of professional experience in an industry, you will approach the product with different expectations. When I was working at the BBC, if the satellite signal dropped for even a fraction of a second during the live broadcast, you would not believe that the pressure level of the RxTx (reception and transmission) center returned to the editorial department. In short, however, the kit is not intended to replace equipment for small trucks, the equipment is intended to broadcast breaking news to millions of people. It aims to make life easier for YouTube anchors.
The Mevo multi-camera application becomes the control center for your multi-camera live streaming tendency. This is an excellent and elegant way of multi-camera streaming. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
The Mevo multi-camera application becomes the control center for your multi-camera live streaming tendency. This is an excellent and elegant way of multi-camera streaming. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
On the surface, the product looks like a very, very good idea-but it does not mean that Mevo Start is perfect-it is obviously a device designed by people who have not spent much time setting up their cameras in the dark club , And it’s obvious to me that the product team has never needed to install and remove kits 30 times in quick succession. If they do, they will make some subtle and different decisions that may have a disproportionate impact on the final product.
For example, a truly stupid decision is the power button on the camera. It is completely flush with the body, and although it is rubber, there is no turf on its buttons, and there is no way to find it by touching it. To make matters worse, the button is matte black on the matte black camera body. Try to find it in the dark while trying to set up the camera between the two groups of musicians. To be fair, this is usually the case for product design: it was designed in a CAD package and tested in a well-lit hardware laboratory, but it’s too late for someone who wants to set it up in various use cases. Will use the camera.
The back of the camera includes a USB-C power port, a MicroSD card slot for local recording, a microphone input, and a power button that can hardly be found in the dark. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
The back of the camera includes a USB-C power port, a MicroSD card slot for local recording, a microphone input, and a power button that can hardly be found in the dark. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
Sorry to talk about a design feature, but given that it is actually the only button on the camera, it seems important. One thing I like about the power button is that it is hard to press-you have to use a lot of force to start it. Great: It's hard to press a button accidentally, and accidents are the last thing you want during a live broadcast. The not-so-good thing is that when you set up something for the live broadcast in a hurry, you will be very busy-I find that I need to turn the camera on and off with one hand often because I have a microphone or another on the other Pieces of equipment. This means that when you press the power button on the camera, the only way to get real leverage is to fix the camera on the other side of the camera, at the same height as the power button. Unfortunately, this means that the only natural way to press the power button is to grab the lens at the same time to gain leverage. I may not have to elaborate on this, but I will anyway-the lens is actually the only part of the camera that can benefit from the absence of greasy fingerprints on it.
The only way to open and close the camera with one hand is to hold the camera like this. My finger is pressing the button-but look where my thumb is. The next thing you need to do is to remove fingerprints from the lens. Why? ! Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
The only way to open and close the camera with one hand is to hold the camera like this. My finger is pressing the button-but look where my thumb is. The next thing you need to do is to remove fingerprints from the lens. Why? ! Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
In addition to the camera buttons, the camera also has a series of super smart design functions. There is a small hood to protect the dome-shaped lens from stray light, which greatly helps reduce flare. You can remove the tripod thread from the bottom of the camera and turn it into a larger thread so that you can mount it on a microphone or light stand. The LED light on the front of the camera uses a green LED to show which cameras are ready to go online, while a red LED shows which camera is actually live. The camera’s built-in battery greatly simplifies setup; you don’t need a power source to start streaming — perfect for live broadcasts on the move. All of these are well thought out functions.
Setting up the camera is very frustrating. Out of the box, all three cameras require firmware upgrades. This may be the result of my use of an Android phone, and the iOS version of the app is more mature, but the process ultimately requires several hours of unrecognizable error messages. I was finally able to start working, but it required me to restart the phone six times-once to connect it to each camera, and once to recover from a failed firmware upgrade.
When I encountered these firmware issues, I contacted Mevo's press team. They asked me to contact the development team and let me start working. I thought about it, and decided to reject their proposal. As a hardware auditor, I benefit from being able to talk on the phone with the people who help build the product, but as a consumer, this is usually a very different experience.
If I buy these cameras for my own use, I will return them to Mevo at this time: in my years as a hardware examiner, I have never tested a product that requires a phone restart six times. It can even start the review process. I gave up for a few days, and when I was finally ready to finish the camera work seriously, there was another set of firmware upgrades. This time, I completed the process very smoothly, but having to update the camera firmware twice within a few weeks is not encouraging.
One of the core issues is trust. There are many products, even if you have to try it twice or even three times, it doesn't matter. If you try to change the temperature on the Nest thermostat and don't need to do it the first time, that's okay. You try again, it works. You shrug. Live streaming is not like turning on the air conditioner-when you have thousands of people watching a live performance, the pressure level is high, and even the smallest technical problems can cause tremendous pressure. My background is a live satellite link that may have millions of viewers and a live TV news broadcast, which was destroyed because the newsroom did not get live coverage. Maybe other anchors are more Zen than me on technical issues.
A very popular design style is the detachable plug-in. If there is no insert, it can be installed on the microphone holder. The plug-in is double-threaded: one side is the size of a lamp holder, and the other side has a tripod-sized thread. It's really smart. It is also worth noting that the camera is easy to leave fingerprint marks on it-this is not very good for product photography, but it is not a problem when you use the camera. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
A very popular design style is the detachable plug-in. If there is no insert, it can be installed on the microphone holder. The plug-in is double-threaded: one side is the size of a lamp holder, and the other side has a tripod-sized thread. It's really smart. It is also worth noting that the camera is easy to leave fingerprint marks on it-this is not very good for product photography, but it is not a problem when you use the camera. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
Once I can fully set up the product, it has a chance to shine. The Mevo app that powers the camera is excellent. The multi-camera app allows you to prepare to shoot from one camera and fade in and out between cameras. You can zoom in, use overlays and even configure digital translation motion. Since its core is a very simple setting, you can create very powerful results.
Although I was frustrated with the setup process, the Mevo camera deserves a break: I tested the camera in many different environments and they never let me down. No hiccups, no buffering, no delay, no disconnection.
Multi-camera streaming is ideal for creative pursuits, live music, and live events. Mevo represents incredible value in a small package. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
Multi-camera streaming is ideal for creative pursuits, live music, and live events. Mevo represents incredible value in a small package. Photo: Haje Kamps of TechCrunch
The problem is that I can never fully trust these cameras, so I may never use them for live broadcasts that I care about. Will I set up a three-camera setup and broadcast my foster kitten playing? Absolutely, this is both worth seeing and very cute. Will I use it to broadcast a friend who is holding a concert in a local bar to dozens of his live broadcast fans? Probably not-my stress level is too high and I need to stream for hours without any problems before I can begin to trust the cameras enough to rely on them for anything important.
This is the problem. Live streaming is so risky and stressful that it's vital that you feel that you can trust your equipment. Part of building this trust is the first experience of the product, and Mevo’s camera is one of the worst devices I’ve reviewed in this regard. But the other side is also true: the life of a reviewer is that you see devices with the first version of firmware, and software that may not be ready for prime time. I am willing to accept that Mevo may be able to solve the problems I found in the review, and after three or six months, the camera will be great.
At least in theory and theory, they may be a cost-effective and nearly perfect solution for streamers who want to get involved in the multi-camera world. I have to revisit the product within a few months to know whether to recommend it.